1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to computer software and, more particularly, to methods of assembling a team of people.
2. Description of Related Art
Engineers of the baby-boomer class are retiring in mass, leaving the petroleum industry with a serious skill and experience gap. However, there is one significant fact that mitigates this problem: the petroleum engineer workforce has actively embraced information technology since the early 1960's. A unique opportunity exists to use a petroleum industry reliance on information technology to solve the experience gap dilemma. The future engineer will be free to conduct engineering functions in any location from a thin portable device. In many petroleum/energy companies, upstream engineering processes are digital and integrated.
In the near-term, the petroleum engineer has unique requirements for local processing power to perform reservoir simulation, reservoir management, seismic interpretation, geosciences modeling, facilities modeling, and facilities management. These engineering applications consume massive quantities of compute resources and storage resources. The popular engineering applications are being moved from powerful Unix workstation/servers to powerful Wintel workstations. Many application vendors are seriously embracing web-based delivery techniques for selected functions.
However, for the remote engineering to be successful, efficient, and satisfying for both the company and the engineer, new methods of operation must be developed to surround the remote engineer. In particular, there is a need for new methods of integrating people with disparate skills in order for remote engineering to be successful.